Philadelphia License and Inspection

[Alyse Oz]

I purchased a 3 family home in Philadelphia under an LLC (I am the sole owner). The home was not in the best condition, but ok. I think someone lived there before I became owner. The previous owner apparently did not deal with lots of paperwork (permits etc), now I understand why!!!! Dealing with L&I is a nightmare....terrible bureaucracy. My goal is to live in the top unit and rent out the bottom 2 units. I have a contractor and will get the whole place fixed up. The architect came and made the plans, all is good. My contractor said that they went to L&I to get a permit with the plans but was told that the owner has to get rental licenses first. This seemed strange to me and to the contractor, but that's what the guy said. I'm not planning on renting until the place gets fixed up. Strange stuff!!!! Therefore I went to L&I to get the rental license and was told #1 that I needed verification from zoning and #2 that I had to go to the 11th floor to pay some fees for some violations from 2011!!!!! I haven't even gotten to Problem #2, first I want to handle hurdle #1.

I'm not sure what this zoning business is....it's a huge lot and zoned RM1.  From what I gather the previous owner stopped getting rental permits and last got a vacant lot/house in 2015....and stopped doing anything from 2015 on (I suppose he too was tired of dealing with L&I.  One person I spoke with said just get a change of use permit...but I'm not changing use, it was a 3 family house, and it still is.  Another person said it's not needed.  

It just seems like one hurdle after another.  It's my 3rd time there...I finally got the commercial business license stuff sorted out and now this!!!  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

[Steve Babiak]

Philadelphia has a 311 service that might help; if you are outside the city limits like me, there is a ten digit number to dial to get the city’s 311 service. L&I is no fun to deal with, and waiting in the basement at the Municipal Services Building (MSB) can be quite time consuming.

You have another thing to keep in mind too. Owner is your LLC, so you will need a rental license for all three units - even the one you plan to live in, because you are not the LLC.

You will also get a trash bill, and you might need a monitored fire alarm system, and your building will have to have a smoking policy - well, the requirements never seem to end when you first take on a building within Philadelphia where the previous owner(s) decided to not bother with complying with all the red tape regulations.

I suggest you join HAPCO - they have a manual that you get outlining lots of the seemingly crazy regulations that seem to be constantly changing. Well, they seem to be constantly changing because city council does just that.